benevolentjanitor's journey

I recently experienced layoffs at my company, and it got me thinking about how things fell apart afterward. In my previous role as a software engineer, I witnessed firsthand the impact of poor coding practices and lack of documentation. One of our top engineers had a knack for writing critical code, but he never documented anything, which made it difficult for others to understand or maintain it. After he left, the tech debt he left behind became apparent, and it felt like the product was held together with duct tape. I remember when my old company went through a merger and acquired another firm. They wanted to keep the two client bases separate, but the way the website was coded made it seem like we were hiding better offers from one side. I was hesitant to go along with it, but the paycheck was too good to ignore. After the layoffs, I heard that the order entry and customer service processes had gone haywire, especially after our department was offshored with minimal knowledge transfer. It’s frustrating to see how every time I’ve faced layoffs, the company or department seems to collapse soon after. It’s a bit of schadenfreude for me, seeing the chaos unfold. I still work in tech and can’t help but think that the quality of code and engineering practices play a huge role in a company’s stability.